


Mission: Romance

by kiss_me_cassie



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Deception, Developing Relationship, F/F, Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 08:08:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19058659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiss_me_cassie/pseuds/kiss_me_cassie
Summary: "Why me? Aren't there half a dozen fancy gyms in this building in addition to Mr. Stark's private one? And a dozen trainers just dying to get their hands on you? Metaphorically, that is."





	Mission: Romance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dreamkist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamkist/gifts).



> Much thanks to paperairplanesopenwindows for the initial run through and encouragement and crazy4orcas for such a quick and dirty beta in very little time.
> 
> Prompts: Glamorous and deadly. Weapons training. Spying.

It was fast approaching midnight and they'd just finished up the last of some paperwork when Pepper stopped Natasha from leaving with a brief touch of her hand on Natasha's arm.

"Before you go, Natalie, I wanted to ask you something."

Natasha paused in gathering up the rest of the papers on Pepper's desk and raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"I know it may sound a little… unusual, given your role here at Stark Industries, but I'd like you to teach me to fight. Or at least how to defend myself."

Ah. She'd noticed the spark of interest in Pepper's eyes last week when she'd flipped Happy in Stark's private boxing ring. It probably hadn't been the best move for her to make while she was acting as Natalie Rushman, but she couldn't help it. Something about his smug attitude raised her hackles and she'd felt the need to take him down a notch. 

Plus, there'd been the added bonus of getting Stark's attention with the flip.

And Pepper's, though her interest in getting Pepper's attention had been purely selfish and completely unrelated to her mission.

Pepper had been giving her quite a few appraising looks since that afternoon, although she hadn't said or done anything at all out of the norm since then. But it appeared she'd finally come to a decision on how she wanted to approach Natasha about it.

Natasha's lips quirked up in a small smile, which she quickly hid.

"Why?"

Pepper cocked her head in that considering way she had. "Why you or why do I want to learn to fight?"

Natasha's first instinct was to shrug. Both. Neither. She'd be happy to train Pepper whatever her reasons. But she wasn't Natasha, was she? She was Natalie. And it would make a difference to Natalie.

"Why me? Aren't there half a dozen fancy gyms in this building in addition to Mr. Stark's private one? And a dozen trainers just dying to get their hands on you?" She paused and bit her lip to keep from grinning. Natalie, while possessing a sharp wit, wouldn't be quite that forward in flirting with the boss. "Metaphorically, that is," she tacked on.

"Yes, but I want you." Natasha raised a brow, but made no comment, and Pepper continued. "I saw the way you handled Happy in the boxing ring the other day."

Natasha shook her head, hiding her face behind a lock of hair while feigning innocence. "That was a one time thing. I got lucky."

"I don't think it was," Pepper said, eyeing her shrewdly. A little too shrewdly for Natasha's taste, but there was nothing she could do about that now. What was done was done. 

"I admit I know the basics of self-defense," Natasha tried. "But flipping a man upside down isn't something I've done before. That was a fluke."

"I don't care," Pepper said firmly, overriding Natasha's paltry attempts to deny her skills. "I don't want anyone else. I want _you_ , specifically. We can start tomorrow."

\-----

"Like this?" Pepper asked, thrusting her arm out straight towards the target.

Natasha smiled. "Close, but you want to relax your arm a little. Not too much, or you'll lose the power behind your punch, but enough so you don't damage your wrist or elbow when you make contact."

Pepper tried again.

"Is this better?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder questioningly at Natasha.

"Closer." 

Natasha positioned herself behind Pepper, adjusting her stance and showing her exactly how to stand. It put them in much closer proximity than they'd been in before and Natasha grinned when Pepper's breath hitched just the slightest bit and the pulse at her neck fluttered wildly.

She was definitely having an effect on Pepper. An obvious one. And one that was physical and personal and not at all related to their professional relationship or to the training they were doing.

Under the guise of correcting her posture, Natasha experimentally slid her hand along Pepper's back and carefully gauged her reaction. Pepper's breath sped up again and she leaned back into Natasha's touch. 

Natasha's grin got bigger. What would happen if she pressed closer and swept Pepper's ponytail to the side to nuzzle her neck? Would she welcome the attention? Encourage her to explore even further?

She silently shook her head; they were here so Natasha could teach Pepper to fight, not seduce her, no matter how tempting the idea was. She had to focus.

"If you really want to throw your opponent," Natasha said, taking a step back and putting some space between them, "You need to remember to take them by surprise."

And with that, she sideswiped her leg and took Pepper down.

Pepper blinked up at her from her position down on the mat, shock clearly evident on her face for about thirty seconds before she started laughing.

\-----

"The Expo is in two days," Pepper announced unnecessarily several weeks later.

"So you've been telling me all day," Natasha said with a small smile as she closed the laptop in front of her.

Pepper smiled back. "So I have. What I have _not_ mentioned, however, is that as CEO, I get to bring a 'plus one.'"

"Is that so?" Natasha asked. 

"It is," Pepper confirmed before clearing her throat and looking Natasa in the eye. "Which is why I wanted to ask… Natalie, will you be my plus one?"

Natasha could think of nothing better. "I would love to."

\-----

The Expo was a disaster on several fronts, not the least of which was that Natasha was forced to out herself to Pepper. There was no way Pepper would believe she was a mere PA after witnessing her take down Vanko's men both in person and on the video feed from Hammer's headquarters.

So she wasn't surprised when Pepper cornered her the next morning at the coffee machine. 

"Who are you?" Pepper hissed under her breath, cognizant of the handful of interns nearby watching them intently.

Natasha calmly took a sip of her coffee then turned to face her. "You know who I am."

"No," Pepper corrected, frowning. "I know who you were pretending to be. But I saw you last night at the Expo. And I saw the security footage from Hammer's building showing you taking down a battalion of men. Those were not the moves of someone who works as a personal assistant and dabbles in self-defense."

Natasha raised a perfectly arched brow. "I'm sure there are plenty of PAs who can do what I did last night."

Pepper's snort of derision made it clear she thought Natasha was crazy if she believed Pepper could be deceived that easily. She pinned Natasha with a fierce look. "I'll ask one last time. Who are you?"

Time to fish or cut bait, Natasha thought. She sighed.

"Natasha Romanoff, SHIELD agent," she said as she held out her hand.

For a second, Pepper looked immensely sad and disappointed. She didn't allow her emotions to show for very long though. In moments, she was back to being Pepper Potts, unflappable Stark Industries CEO. 

She glanced down at Natasha's outstretched hand but declined to grasp it. Instead, she spun around on her perfectly balanced stilettos and stalked off.

Natasha sighed and took another sip of her coffee. It was a pity, really, that things were ending this way, but alas, such was the life of a spy. Very few people wanted to accept being lied to on a daily basis. Not that she blamed them. But still... she and Pepper would have made a formidable couple.

It was a shame they'd never gotten the chance to get that far in their relationship.

\-----

It was a few weeks after her assignment at Stark Industries when Natasha got a text from Pepper asking her to meet near the Shakespeare Garden in Central Park.

Intriguing. 

She showed up ten minutes earlier than the arranged time, but Pepper was already there, sitting on a bench that was still fairly public but shielded by several tall rhododendrons. Natasha took a moment to admire how pretty she looked surround by the dark pink blooms then noted that she looked nervous, subtly twisting her fingers together before smoothing them across her lap.

Collecting her coffee from the sidewalk vendor, Natasha handed him a couple of bills then made her way over to the bench where Pepper was waiting.

"If you're here to lure me back to work, you should know that Stark fired me," she said as she took a seat.

Pepper smiled crookedly at her. "Tony couldn't have fired you; you never actually worked for him."

Natasha raised a brow at that, but didn't comment.

"He explained that you were trying to save his life and Phil confirmed it," she continued. "So I wanted to apologize."

That was the last thing Natasha expected and it threw her. She took a sip of her coffee to buy a little time to get her thoughts together. "It's understandable that you were upset that I lied to you."

"Yes, it is," Pepper said, nodding. "It's never nice to be deceived. But I may have overreacted a bit at finding out you weren't who you said you were."

"Why?" she asked bluntly.

"Why did I overreact or why was I upset?"

"Either. Both."

"Because I had developed feelings for Natalie Rushman and I thought…" Pepper's cheeks flushed with embarrassment but Natasha had to give her credit - never once did she look away. She met Natasha's gaze head on.

"Yes?" she prompted.

"I thought maybe Natalie had feelings for me, too. And it hurt to think that it was all a lie."

Natasha wanted to kiss her right then and there but she settled for setting her coffee down on the ground and smiling broadly at Pepper. "It wasn't all a lie."

Pepper looked relieved as she took a deep breath and returned Natasha's smile.. "I realize that now. And with that realization it occurred to me that since you never worked for Tony, you never worked for me either."

Natasha tilted her head questioningly. Pepper had surprised her again. "True. Where are you going with this?"

"Which means if I did this"-- Pepper leaned in and gave her a soft kiss, one that made Natasha tingle all the way down to her toes -- "then it's not a potential sexual harrassment suit" -- She kissed Natasha again, a little deeper this time, her tongue lightly licking against Natasha's bottom lip -- "or at all awkward."

Natasha pulled back from the kiss and frowned. "Did you think it was going to be awkward?"

Pepper giggled. "It could've been. If you hadn't reciprocated things."

"Who says I do?" Natasha couldn't help teasing with a grin.

Now it was Pepper's turn to grin. "I am a very shrewd judge of people. There's no way you can convince me that you didn't feel the sparks between us when you were teaching me to fight."

"I suppose I can't," Natasha admitted, leaning in this time and giving Pepper a kiss, deeper and much more intimate than the ones they'd just shared.

"No, you can't," Pepper murmured against her lips. "Lucky for me."


End file.
